1990s

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I often quote Kim Ki-Duk as my favourite director of all time, partly because of his prolific output (I’m glad he numbers his films, I was losing count!) and his consistently emotional style. While I absolutely adore the “new-wave” Kim Ki-Duk (3-Iron, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…And Spring, The Bow), I also thoroughly enjoy his earlier, grittier films (The Isle, Address Unknown). This film, his debut, is possibly the best and grittiest of the early films. In a setting that stands somewhere between urban and rural, and filled with Kim Ki-Duk’s beloved water motif, we see three misfits (a boy, the title character Crocodile and an elderly man) inexplicably living together on a platform under a bridge. Read More »

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A death in the family. Patrick dies and his three sisters gather at their parents’ home in Normandy. Anne, the oldest, is steady, married with two children, showing little emotion. Isabelle, who’s cut herself off from her family for eight years, returns from Paris. Claude, Patrick’s twin and still a student, grieves for her other half. Along with their parents, each must face family grievances first before they can grieve together for Patrick. Then comes the revelation of how he died, and new feelings come to the fore. Can a death help a family to heal, coax an aging mother back to sanity, bring a couple into each other’s arms, and enable two sisters to grow?Read More »

One of seven new films in a series–called the “Asian Beat” series–which revolve around the exotic adventures of a young Japanese hero, Tokio.Read More »

In a Balinese village, families go to great trouble and expense for their extravagant cremation ceremony. They provide special foods to mourners and prepare a bounty of offerings for the deceased, from gifts of money to symbolic baskets. The atmosphere is almost festive as a shadow puppet show is performed for the entertainment of the deceased, inheritances are distributed, and musical processions of mourners walk the streets. Dead family members seem almost present as their bones are uncovered, washed, and arranged for cremation with accompanying prayer rites. During the cremation, the village is filled with smoke from enormous burning pyres shaped like bulls, as the souls of the dead are cleansed of impurity and then sent out to sea so that they may continue their journey to heaven. Shot in 16mm, the film documents and explains the intricacies of these funeral rites and Balinese-Hindu beliefs about death.Read More »

This is a two-part video portrait of the outstanding Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of famous novels about the Russian revolution and the acclaimed study of the Soviet concentration camps, “The Gulag Archipelago”. Solzhenitsyn is of more interest to the filmmaker for his attitudes, thoughts and present life, than for his legendary past. Rather than interviewing some important person, Sokurov creates a monumental image before our eyes.Read More »

Norwegian Nobel Laureate Knut Hamsun’s controversial support for the Nazi regime during WW2 and its consequences for the Hamsun family after the war.Read More »

Synopsis wrote:
Based on the novel by Russell Banks, AFFLICTION is a sobering, absorbing psychological study of the precarious relationship between an abusive father and his two sons. Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is a middle-aged ineffectual sheriff in a small New Hampshire town, where he and his brother, Rolfe (Willem Dafoe), were raised. When events shatter the quiet of his small town, Wade is forced to confront the past and reexamine his life, attempting a reconciliation with his abusive, alcoholic dad, Glen (James Coburn), by moving back home to look after him. This quietly intense, haunting, and beautifully filmed story unfolds against the harsh snow-white backdrop of a town where everyone knows each other. But more than anything, it is the brilliant performances of its cast that mark this film.Read More »

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Samba Traoré had left his village years ago to seek his fortune in the big city. He has found only unemployment and rootlessness. As the film begins, he is part of a filling station holdup in which his partner is killed but Samba Traoré, determined, takes the money at gunpoint.

He returns to his village, hides the money, and lets out that he has been successful and now wants to live at home. He resumes old friendships. He marries. His impulses run away with him as opportunities arise to spend more and more of the money. At first people just think he did well in the city. Then they think he did amazingly well. Then they think that they never dreamed anyone could make so much money. Finally his trail becomes so obvious that the police hear of him.Read More »

A group of students with varying family backgrounds begin to question their lives and the hypocritical values of their corrupt socialist society. Their decision to follow their own ideals brings them in disrepute with those closest to them. Their support of one another finally brings them to realise a friendship based on loyalty and belonging.Read More »